851.01/3747: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 4—6:40 a.m.]
3631. Mr. Eden was asked yesterday in Parliament whether an agreement had yet been concluded with the French Committee for the administration of territory in metropolitan France as it might be liberated from German occupation. Mr. Eden replied: “I am happy to take this opportunity to emphasize that His Majesty’s Government are in full agreement with the statement made by the United States Secretary of State on April 971 in regard to the administration of liberated France. In accordance with this, conversations are now in progress between the Supreme Allied Commander and the French Military Mission in this country under General Koenig with a view to working out detailed arrangements”.
The following further question was then asked: “Does that mean that the authority with which we deal in liberated France will be the French Committee of National Liberation?” Mr. Eden answered, “Yes, sir. I do not know of any other authority except Vichy, and we have no intention of dealing with Vichy in any circumstances whatever. It will be for the French nation in due course, as has been repeatedly declared by the leaders of the French Committee of Liberation, to make their own choice of government”.
- For text of Secretary Hull’s address over the Columbia Broadcasting System, see Department of State Bulletin, April 15, 1944, p. 335.↩